Volume 10 Number 91
Produced: Mon Dec 27 18:19:36 1993
Subjects Discussed In This Issue:
Administrivia
[Avi Feldblum]
Grave Tombstone
[Mike Shaikun]
Hastening Death
[Jan David Meisler]
ShabbatShalom-new dvar torah list
[Seth Ness]
Small Cattle - Behemah Dakah
[Dafna Rivka Siegman]
Subscriptions to _Hamevaser_
[Gedalyah Berger]
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From: <mljewish@...> (Avi Feldblum)
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 93 17:16:28 -0500
Subject: Administrivia
Hello All,
Mail-Jewish will be taking a vacation from this Thursday (Dec 30)
through Sunday January 2. I expect that the last mail-jewish to go out
will be Wednesday evening, and I will get back to mail-jewish on Monday
evening. So this will give many of you a chance to catch up on your
reading.
I've received a few more files for the archives, and have fixed up some
of the gopher screens. I will put together for a future Administrivia a
copy of what is available in the archive area besides for the past
mailings.
Purim Edition: The Purim editor has been appointed! It is the author of
the last two years Purim Speil, Sam Saal. Please start sending in your
Purim submissions to Sam at: <SSAAL@...>
We also have a Pesach edition in planning, with editors for that as
well. Further info will come on that early next calender year.
We will end out the year with Volume 10, and I will start Volume 11 when
I get back.
Avi Feldblum
mail-jewish Moderator
<mljewish@...>
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From: <mike.shaikun@...> (Mike Shaikun)
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 93 20:39:00
Subject: Grave Tombstone
My mother died last March and I need advice as to what is proper to
place on a tombstone. Also, if there are any good books on the subject,
I'd like to look at them.
We are Conservative and want a traditional stone. My father is a bit
uncomfortable with a double stone right now, but is thinking about it.
In checking our cemetery and other Jewish cemeteries i note mostly
doubles, but there are also double grave sites with separate stones.
It makes no difference to me whether we use one double or when the time
comes two singles. Dad who is a very healthy and lively 80 (his father
died at 95) is concerned that a double stone would look funny if he
later was buried elsewhere. Right now he is loving the attention of the
ladies and has no desire for a serious relationship. But as he says,
who knows.
We understand that even where one remarries it is usual in his
circumstances to be buried with the first wife. What is Jewish law on
this? In looking through our cemetery it seems that this is the custom.
So any help you or any of your readers can give on design and choice of
single vs double stones will be helpful. I am going to meet with my
Rabbi on this soon, but wanted your thoughts first.
Thanks
Reply here or direct via email to <mike.shaikun@...>
Mike
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From: Jan David Meisler <jm8o+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1993 11:08:23 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Hastening Death
David Charlap wrote that he believes that one is permitted to remove
artificial means that are keeping an individual alive, and thereby the
person will end up dying sooner. The example that he brings is of an
old man where a loud noise is keeping him from "drifting off" into
death. He says that he believes that one is permitted to turn off the
noise, and thereby the man would then die.
I had learned slightly differently. I had learned that if a person has
something artificial that keeps him alive, and it has to be removed
regularly for maintanence, then when it is removed for its maintanence,
it may be kept off at that time. An example of this is a kidney
dialysis machine. Without the machine, a person would die in a short
period of time (I don't know if it is a week or two, or if it depends on
the individual). This is a machine that must be cleaned every so often,
I think about once per week. In order to do this maintanence, the
machine must be disconnected from the individual. If the machine was
not cleaned, then too the person would die. When the machine is taken
off one week, the doctors are permitted to leave it off.
There is a difference that I see between the two ways of looking at it.
The way mentioned by David Charlap is an example of Kum V'Aseh, getting
up to do something, applied to a negative commandment. The second
example is an example of shev, v'al ta'aseh, sit and do nothing, applied
to a positive commandment. In the first case, one is being active to
turn off the noise or to actually go and remove the machine. In the
second case, one is being passive by not reattaching the machine. Yes,
he is removing it to begin with, but this is part of the maintanence
that is do at this time. If the machine was left on, it would then
function the same way. It would seem that if the machine broke, it
would also be permitted to not fix it. I am not paskening the halachah
in any of the cases, only presenting what I have learned in the past.
These halachas are so intricate, and there are many different views on
what can and can not be done.
Yochanan
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From: Seth Ness <ness@...>
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 93 18:01:05 -0500
Subject: ShabbatShalom-new dvar torah list
Hello all,
This is to announce a new mailing list to distribute the Aish Ha'Torah
Shabbat Shalom Fax on the internet. To subscribe, send a message to
<listserv@...>
no subject
in the body write 'sub shabbatshalom your name'
without the quotes, and replacing 'your name' with your actual name.
Here is the welcome message for the list.
Welcome to shabbatshalom! This is the new internet listserv version of the
Aish HaTorah Shabbat Shalom Fax.
The Aish HaTorah Shabbat Shalom Fax goes out each week by fax to over
3,000 Jews worldwide. It is geared to Jews from little or no background
who want a Jewish connection, a spiritual connection. The purpose is to
inform, educate and perhaps to entertain a bit.
The format: Question and Answers about holidays, Jewish
practises, philosopy and life; Torah Portion overview for the week; A
Dvar Torah, a short word of Torah suitable to share with friends at a
Shabbat meal, which points out a seeming contradiction or
problem in the text and presents a solution which teaches us a lesson
about life (usually drawn from the magnificent works of Rabbi Zelig Pliskin).
Aish News -- what's happening with Aish HaTorah internationally --
seminars, publications, new Torah tapes. Candle lighting times for
various locals. And finally, a quote of the week. Periodically, there
are Freebies -- offers of free items, catalogs, or other opportunities
that someone would want.
Written by Rabbi Kalman Packouz, executive director of Aish
HaTorah Jerusalem's office in Miami Beach, Florida. Rabbi Packouz is
one of the first five students at Aish HaTorah, the founder of the
first Aish HaTorah branch in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the pioneers
in the field of Jewish Computer Dating, and an expert in the field of
preventing intermarriage having written a book on the topic.
He is also the father of eight children -- three girls, five boys.
Aish HaTorah is an international Jewish educational outreach
movement based in the Old City of Jerusalem. It has branches in the
former Soviet Union, Great Britain and North America. Aish HaTorah has
a full range of publications and tapes available to people interested in
Judaism. It also runs the world famous Discovery Seminar in 79 cities
on 6 continents. To date, over 50,000 people have attended Discovery.
For further information or for questions, you may contact
Rabbi Packouz at <ny000982@...> or at:
Aish HaTorah, 3414 Prairie Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida 33140-3429.
Tel. (305) 535-2474 Fax. (305) 531-9334.
Seth L. Ness Ness Gadol Hayah Sham
<ness@...>
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From: Dafna Rivka Siegman <drs17@...>
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1993 13:29:46 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Small Cattle - Behemah Dakah
One more comment about the "small cattle" (behemah dakah) that have been
mentioned on MJ. In his __Social and Religious History of the Jews__,
vol. 1, pg. 253-254, Salo Baron discusses the economic conditions in
Maccabean and Roman Palestine. He describes a primarily agricultural
society which gave primacy to raising grain and fruit. He notes that
"Law often had to be adjusted to life's urgent necessities" [and cites
an example regarding "kilayim" (cultivating heterogeneous plants in the
same field)]. He continues:
"For similar reasons a rabbi of the second century listed
"those who rear small cattle" alongside those who "cut down good trees" as
persons "who will never see a sign of blessing." These two activities
were not quite unrelated. Apart from fearing the direct damage which
grazing sheep might inflict on trees, particularly in their tender years,
the sages of the first and second centuries favored the more intensive
grain and fruit cultivation. Less dangerous appeared to them the larger
cattle (oxen and cows) which could be raised economically only in the
extensive grasslands of Transjordan and other peripheral regions, where
flocks of sheep were likewise permitted. A similar transition occurred in
Rome where the great patriot Cato (2nd cent BCE) had placed a meadow for
cattle raising ahead of grain land as a safe way of making profit, while
a century later Varro sharply denounced those who converted fields into
pasture. In any case, meat was not a staple product in Palestine ....
With the burning of the Temple disappeared also the need of a daily supply
of sacrificial animals and birds. Animals needed for work in fields or
for such by-products as hides and wool could readily be purchased from
the neighboring seminomadic Nabateans. Not that cattle raising totally
disappeared from the Jewish economy before 70, but it was topographically
as well as figuratively relegated to the periphery."
In note 5, Baron cites, J. Aharoni's "Small Cattle in the Bible and
Postbiblical Literature" (Hebrew) in __Tarbitz__, XI, 56-73. I have
not had a chance to look it up, but maybe Aharoni has additional
information.
Dafna Siegman
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From: Gedalyah Berger <gberger@...>
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 93 15:58:01 -0500
Subject: Subscriptions to _Hamevaser_
I've been meaning for a while to make a pitch here on MJ for
_Hamevaser_, the journal of Jewish thought published by the
undergraduate schools of Yeshiva University. Those of you who went/go
to YU are I'm sure familiar with it, but for the rest: Hamevaser started
a few decades ago as the school newspaper of RIETS, but in recent years
has turned into a journal containing thoughtful, well-written articles
on hashkafah, Tanach, and halakhah written mostly by undergraduates at
Yeshiva and Stern Colleges. In short, I think the issues discussed are
precisely the type that would interest the MJ readership. Hamevaser is
published approximately five times a year (4 plus Purim). This year's
first issue focussed on shemittah, while the second had articles on the
following topics: message of Chanukkah; the characters of Ach'av and
Gideon; the story of Reuven and the duda'im; ma'ser kesafim; the
halakhic implications of the International Dateline; a summary of Dr.
Haym Soloveitchik's recent lecture series on "Transformations in
Contemporary Orthodoxy"; and a review of Dr. Aaron Levine's recent book
on economics and halakhah. (Percy Matt's recent mention in #84 of the
Dateline issue in Japan is what reminded me to post this.) Later this
year we (I'm an assistant editor) plan to devote an issue to women's
learning and their place in halakhic discourse.
A subscription is $12 a year; if you want the second issue, send $10 and
we'll try to get it to you; otherwise send $8 and we'll put you on the
list for the rest of the year (but be warned - the next issue is Purim!
:-) ). Our address is:
Hamevaser
2540 Amsterdam Ave.
New York, NY 10033
Make checks out to Hamevaser.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Gedalyah Berger
Yeshiva College / RIETS
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End of Volume 10 Issue 91